Thursday, September 09, 2010

Quran troll

Arguably, I shouldn't even be posting this. Trolls should be ignored. The trouble is, even internet-savvy people have trouble living up to that prescription. The world as a whole definitely doesn't know what to do about trolls. There are already people in Afghanistan holding demonstrations because of this troll... so I feel like "just ignore it" maybe isn't enough right now.

John Shimek: The best suggestion I have heard it to ignore it and donate towards the Pakistan flood relief.

Very good. But I'm wondering if one step further would be a good idea: an explicit linkage. You know, "I pledge a $x donation for Pakistan flood relief for every copy of the Quran burned." Isn't there a webservice out there that facilitates making this sort of pledge? Help me out, lazyweb - this should happen fast if it's going to happen.

Granted, Pakistan flood relief shouldn't be an issue of the victims' religion one way or the other, so there's something a little odd about using it as an anti-bigotry statement. And maybe this does amount to feeding the troll. But at least it would feed some real-live human beings at the same time. It's the only way I can think of to turn this stupidity into something good.

And, if you can permit me just one little troll-foodish comment...

To be an a**hole is one thing. (I really struggled to find another word here. This time, though, it really is the only word.) But to say, "It's not me - it's God who's the a**hole, and I'm just obeying him"... I don't understand how anybody can say that without being 100% flat-out certain that there is no God. Why would anybody take the slightest chance of ever standing before God and having Him say, "Could you repeat that to My face, please?"

6 comments:

The problem with donating to flood relief for each qua-ran burned is that it's kind of like saying "this is a good thing. Burn more so we can do more good!" And the people offended on a personal level by the burning will tell you exactly where you can shove your American dollars. :-(

WHY OH WHY do I need to read to read about this on planet python? I don't think this is the right forum to discuss religion and related politics.

And 'Why would anybody take the slightest chance of ever standing before God and having Him say, "Could you repeat that to My face, please?', because even if there is a god you cannot know his nature, so you can't know wether he would be appeased or disgusted by this.